Wrong Window @ Curtain Call Theatre, 5/25/12

by Michael Eck
LATHAM – “Wrong Window.”
Well, at least half of the title is right.
Billy Van Zandt and Jane Milmore’s sort-of-spoof on the Alfred Hitchcock classic “Rear Window” is wrong in more ways than one.
The play, currently onstage at Curtain Call Theatre, is a sort-of-spoof in that it steals the idea of accidentally witnessing a murder while eavesdropping from the film and runs rampant from there. Where it runs is down a path strewn with obvious jokes, bad puns and the odd cultural sub-reference.
Van Zandt and Milmore have made a long career out of providing such comic fluff, and Friday’s sold-out opening night house suggests that their career will keep right on going. It just won’t be remembered as well or as fondly as Hitchock’s.
Unfortunately, the production takes a few wrong turns of its own, making that path even rockier.
For starters, Ben Katagiri, as Jeff Elbies, is simply too young for the role. Every time a reference to his age passes by, his youthful smile betrays him and makes the play harder to believe, not that the playwrights are actually asking you to believe anything in a play this intentionally silly.
Katagiri is, if possible, a little too antic for the role, but he is balanced by Kathleen Carey’s seasoned playing as his wife, Marnie — this is Hitchcockian, remember.
The first time Marnie’s name is mentioned, a bell tings and the lights dim. Many other Hitchock titles are referenced, too, and you can likely figure out the rest of Van Zandt and Milmore’s running gag on your own. It’s a farce, so at least that bit works.
Phil Rice has directed actual thrillers before and it seems that his sense of pacing is much better matched to dramatic material. Many of Friday’s punchlines went unanswered, and not all of that can be laid at the low quality of the set-ups. Van Zandt and Milmore may write groaners, but even those are meant to elicit a response.
The second act, with it’s flashlight-driven chaos and rotating accusations does draw more response than the first. And many of those guffaws are spurred by Jenna Dott as creepy neighbor Thor Larswald’s wife, Lila. Rarely has an actor with so few lines gotten so many laughs.
And Joe Sears, as Larswald, does creepy good.
Jed Krivisky and Sarah Wasserbach play the Elbies’ pals, Robbie and Midge. Their bedroom quirks prompt titters but never would have fit in a Hitchcock film, at least not by name.
CCT veterans Jack Fallon and John J. Quinan complete the cast as the one-name handyman Loomis and police detective Doyle Thomas.
Fallon skews Loomis as broad as possible, and the fun he has with the character is infectious.
Too bad the same can’t be said for the rest of the show.